All the little gentlemen - portraits by Louis-Léopold Boilly, circa 1800-25

 

I find Boilly's very small-scale head-and-shoulders portraits of gentlemen quite charming. I haven't bothered to caption or date any of the images or otherwise identify the sitters, as twenty of them are "unknown," one is clearly misidentified, and the other five are... well, though it's rude to say, not worth mentioning! 

(I find this very period inappropriate - and fairly crude - frame distressing. I feel bad that the stylish and rather piquant sitter is being forced to endure this.)